PostSuspiscion
by TwilTye
Summary: A chibified Hakuba finds himself somewhat forcefully dropped in front of the Mouri Detective Agency and Conan finds himself with what looks like more than even the Heisei Holmes..s can handle. Includes KID, BO, and lots and lots of other /fun/ stuff.
1. Another Beginning

_Let's cut to the chase, then, shall we?_

_... _

_Two familiar figures clothed in identical black coats and hats. What they say is just barely audible even in the surrounding silence._

"What do you have to report?"

"Nothing much. Only the same suspicions of the same people."

"And which people do you mean be that? Your reports should include it anyhow." There was a hint of a threat hiding under the words. And, in this particular organization, such a threat, even if not directly stated, was potentially hazardous to one's health. Hazardous as in fatal.

"Alright, then. Though by now it seems quite pointless.  
"One Edogawa Conan, appears to be linked to Kudo Shinichi, whom we have registered as dead.  
"One Mouri family, for close associations with both Kudo and Edogawa.  
"Haibara Ai, elementary school student. Confirmed connection to Sherry.  
"One Hattori Heiji, thought to be investigating our Organization secretly. He may know too much and could be dangerous with connections in the police.  
"One Hakuba Saguru, a better detective than Hattori and with similar police connections. Well-informed of Kaitou KID—if he were to investigate further into several of KID's circumstances, he could uncover the accompanying division of the organization."

There was a pause. For a few seconds, it seemed as if nobody was there—it was dark enough that their black attire faded straight into the background.

"For now, we can only monitor Edogawa and the Mouris. As for the others…we shall have to remove them in some way. Hattori is well-known. The media would be all over his disappearance if that were to happen. Hakuba, on the other hand…his father may start an extensive search; however, he is altogether less known by the public, and therefore less trouble for us to handle later. We'll deal with him first."  


...

It was a normal school day. Kuroba and Nakamori with their daily antics, Koizumi with her ridiculously nonsensical comments that appeared out of the blue every now and then. Hakuba Saguru sighed. A normal day—or it was at least as normal as it would ever get at that particular high school. Kuroba meanwhile managed to bounce on and off his desk, half to bother him, half to actually escape Aoko's mop. He found himself with half a dozen white doves fluttering in his face, but by now he had learned not to question how the hell a student had managed to successfully bring in and hide the doves for the entire day—he did, _however_, wonder how Kaito had kept himself from conjuring them earlier. The day was nearly over…only a few more minutes and the bell would ring. He could retreat to the silence (and to somewhere safe from accidentally getting mauled by a passing mop).

_RIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIINNNNNNNNNG_

He did his best to keep his sanity and walk calmly out of the classroom in an orderly fashion, but the other students obviously had other things on their mind. If he even stopped walking for a moment, the sea of students would jostle him back again. He let the crowd carry him—he was worn out enough as it was, he didn't want to fight against a couple dozen people all moving in the same direction. Not that school was that challenging, he'd technically already graduated anyhow, but that didn't remove that aspect of education that was always there.

He wearily shut his home's door behind him. Silence. So wonderful in every way he could possibly think for now. The fact that the lights weren't on and the curtains were tightly shut hardly even struck him as suspicious. But then again, that was probably because he'd not turned them on yet. He didn't even bother.

"Welcome home, Hakuba Saguru." Something was pushed into his face, and his sight darkened. Chlorofom, he guessed in his barely aware state. He felt a small object being fed into his mouth—a pill?  
"It's the same batch as before…even if it doesn't work as it should, we'll have another lab rat. After all, none of the previous subjects poked their noses where they shouldn't have been after they took this. Dead or not." By now, Hakuba had completely and utterly blacked out. He never saw the two men leave his house.

...

Hakuba regained consciousness, painfully. He could hardly remember anything but…a burning heat? Had he died? Was this the afterlife?! He panicked and sat up, the motion bringing forth further bouts of pain in his chest and various muscles. Pain. He could vividly remember the searing heat that had cut through his body. It didn't take a meitantei to figure that the poison he'd been force fed was at fault. Pain meant he was still alive, right? And, to his relief, he was still on the floor of his own home.

"Well, _tantei-san_," came an all-too-familiar voice that very nearly gave Hakuba a heart attack, "it seems you've gotten yourself into quite a bit of trouble this time around."

The white-clad figure seemingly stepped out of nowhere, though on closer inspection, he had simply removed a dark-colored cloak. He hung onto something on the ceiling, standing atop one of the columns adorning the wall.

Hakuba could only blink. In all the excitement, he completely failed to notice that he was sitting in clothes a couple dozen sizes larger than they should have been.

KID raised an eyebrow. Well, if the meitantei wanted to be quiet, then so be it. He sighed, his poker face easily hiding whatever emotions he might be feeling. "You're lucky I happened to drop by. Right after that pair in back left, out the back door, I might add, I disabled the cameras they planted. All they'll get is a still image of your quite dead-looking body."

The detective hardly had time to rage against KID for intruding his house before the kaitou started explaining again.

"Well, seeing as we're now against the same organization, I might as well help you out with this little situation of yours." He disappeared in a pink cloud of smoke, seemingly without any movement to reappear in front of the highschool detective. Now that the thief was closer, all the perspective seemed somewhat off. As if things were bigger, somehow. "You should go find yourself a change of clothes!" KID said, almost cheerfully leaning in close to the detective, a goofy smile on his face. "Hopefully you don't throw your old stuff away." He swirled around as if still presenting for an audience and walked a few steps. Glancing at the teen-turned boy from over his shoulder, Kuroba wondered if he could keep up the poker face much longer. One of his best friends had just shrunk from 18 to what looked like…eight. Not something you'd see every day. ((1))

Not just that, but these people that had given Hakuba the poison…he'd had an eerie hunch that it had been they who murdered his father. He was no detective and needed no proof to come to a conclusion.  
Realizing that he'd started staring off into space, he dragged his head back to the present. Hakuba was still staring at him, with those shocked, horribly confused child's eyes. "If you don't get it, get yourself to a mirror. I've done enough talking. You'll figure it out soon enough, after all, you are a mei-tan-tei." He finished with a signature smirk, before promptly making himself comfortable on the couch.

The boy blinked, taking a few seconds to completely register. He rushed to the nearest mirror, and, it being more than a few steps away, he quickly tripped on what he soon found to be his uniform pants—albeit much longer than he remembered. When he finally managed to stumble to the mirror (by now Kaitou KID—or Kuroba Kaito, if his suspicions were correct, which they always were—had turned on the lights), he fell backwards from the shock.

~CHAPTER END~  
AN://  
Well, here's to my very first fanfic ever. Cheers. Well, on to a decent introduction.  
I'm Twiltye, or simply Tye. I'm an artist before everything else and you can probably find some link to my dA on my profile. I actually hope to do comics…but art first and then writing? Who knows where I'm headed.  
Well, after drowning myself in all 700 chapters of the manga (okay, 697), 152 episodes of the anime, all of MK, and so many fanfics that I can't remember which story goes to which fanfic (and almost to the point of forgetting what's canon), I've finally decided to write my own DC/MK fanfic. Partially because I'm a sucker for Shinichi but have far more interesting things to draw than him and after this much DC, partially because I need to brush up on my writing skills.  
Onto Chapter 2. Yay.

1. Going by manga canon, in which KID gives no signs of knowing that Conan is Shinichi.

DISCLAIMER://  
I obviously do not own DC, MK, or anything else I may or may not vaguely reference. Unless of course I actually do own it, in which case I'll probably explain down here because I'm so insanely arrogant that way.

Reviews will be worshipped.


	2. Some Things to Think About

~CHAPTER START~

"What….the hell happened…?" This was said with mixed emotions. Kaito could sense fear, disbelief, rage, and shock among others, in a voice quite possibly several octaves higher than it should have been.

In front of him stood his childhood self. Exactly what he knew he'd find if he decided to flip through any of his old photo albums then and there.

"Well, first, go change your clothes. We can't have you going around in those clothes!" A quick flutter of his cape and the problem was solved, leaving the child in semi-formal to casual little kid's clothes. Hakuba wondered why the magician had bothered to ask whether the detective kept his old things, before realizing that they were, in fact, his own old clothes. The thief must have filched them from his storage earlier…just /how/ long had he been snooping around his house?!

"Hm…Not much more I can do here for you! I'll hack into the police systems and write up a report to cover you. Or maybe I could just go in dis—"

Hakuba cut him off. "I have a few questions for you, Kaito KID-san." He started counting them off on his now minuscule fingers. "A) What in the world were you doing in my house directly after school got out, B) How do you know about these guys, and C) What am I supposed to do now?!" The unmasked rage was a fish out of water in his classmate's normally polite-to-a-fault nature, not to mention on the face of an eight-year-old kid. Kuroba almost stepped back and dropped his practiced poker face.

"You happened to forget that you're now apparently a decade younger than you sho—"

The miniature meitantei interrupted again. "Just answer my questions, will you?"

"Okay, I simply decided to drop by and see how my tantei-san was doing? Is there anything wrong with that?!" KID didn't hide his indignity. In fact, he tried actually did his best to _overexpress_ himself. "You must have the strangest ideas about me." _No kidding_, thought Saguru, an unimpressed expression on his face. "Well, anyhow, I was hiding up there the entire time, waiting for you so I could pull some obscure prank. Duh. And, well, then those guys walked in, I did a disappearing act minus the smoke, and watched as they ambushed you." The phantom thief shrugged. "Simple."

"Hm…speaking of _tantei-san_, I can't exactly call you that anymore. BUT I can't call you _tantei-kun_ either!" KID seemed to be pacing in frustration. A lightbulb practically appeared over Kaito's head just then, and the thief opened his mouth as if to say something, before Hakuba was enveloped in pink smoke.

…

He woke up on a bench, somewhere in Tokyo. Strange. He'd never remembered falling asleep…Kaitou KID must have put some anesthetic in that gas he'd sprayed.

To any passerbyer, he would have just looked like a kid taking a nap on the bench. He could guess that after putting him to sleep, KID must've disguised as either a babysitter or his "mother" and carried him to the bench, and apparently simply left him there.

A weight in one of his pockets. Sticking his hand in to observe, he found…his watch…and a Kaitou KID note…?

_Sorry! Thought I might as well leave this with you._

_I bet you can figure out the rest—I've got some "things" to do._

Kaitou Kid

_Well, gee, thanks_, Hakuba thought to himself. He almost felt like falling into Nakamori's character and swearing his head off. At what—or whom? Was he angry at KID or was it just those people that had done this to him.

"_Well, seeing as we're now against the same organization…"_ What organization had KID been talking about? Despite all the talking that the thief had done, very little had actually been explained.

The expression on his face must've looked strange, at least for an eight-year-old: People were starting to stare at the little boy, no older than ten, who seemed to be deep in thought. Much deeper than any child should have been. Now that he was looking around, he could recognize the area as Beika.

Beika—now what had KID been talking about? Right before he'd left, he'd said something about his not-so-affectionate nickname. Tantei-san? No, it was what he'd said after. _Tantei-kun_. If he was tantei-san, then who could be tantei-kun?

The sidewalks were filled with people. From his _current_ height, it was near impossible to see anything, but once he managed to stand up on the bench, he could see reasonably well.

Kid had dropped him off on an average bench on the sidewalk. Not a surprise. He could see a telephone booth nearby. The road itself wasn't very busy, but there were plenty of people. The first building he could see across the street read _Café Poirot_ and above it the windows read _Mouri Detective Agency_—WHAT?

Well, Kaito had left him there specifically for a reason, he assumed. And, if those were the dots he was _supposed_ to connect, he thought he might as well. Hopping off the bench and crossing the street (quite easy, even in his current state), he made his way over to the Detective Agency.

Then it was a simple matter of…reaching up and ringing the bell. After struggling on his tippy-toes for a good ten minutes, he finally managed to _just_ tap the button.

_Ding-dong_.

Mouri Kogoro opened the door, in his normal drunk stupor. Not quite seeing who it was, only seen that the height of the person standing in front of him was a height just around a certain little annoying little brat.

"-hic- Conun-kn" he managed, "your frind is here." The elder detective passed out on the floor, leaving Hakuba blinking in surprise. He seemed to be doing that a lot today. ((AN:// pardon my drunk speak—I have zero experience in the matter.))

"HAAI!" came a little kid's shout from somewhere around the corner. It sounded almost bored and worn out from whatever, he noted.

Conan walked out from whatever room he was in.

Hakuba blinked. Conan, that little kid he'd encountered on both of the "gatherings of great detectives"?

That little kid…that little kid with an uncanny _brilliance_ quite nearly surpassing his own.

That little kid he'd only actually seen twice.

Conan stared. And blinked.

_Blink._

_Blink._

_Blinkblink._

It went on for a bit. Hakuba presumed that it was because he wasn't, in fact, Conan's friend and had, technically, never even me—

"_Hakuba Saguru-san?!"_

~CHAPTER END~

AN://

Okay, Hakuba is officially hard to write as…his canon character's just so…robotic. I need to learn how to think more in character…Oh yeah, what color are his eyes? I've been looking everywhere, and I still can't figure out whether they're blue like every single other person in the DC universe or if they're actually golden-hazelly-brown-to-maybe-red. I've seen pictures where they're green too. Somebody have a definite answer?

AAAND I'm trying to work on making chapters longer.

DISCLAMER:// Well, if I owned these characters, I'd likely be glomped to death by now.

I will love you forever if you review.


	3. Hirai Akechi

~CHAPTER START~

"You recognized me exactly 8.036 seconds after seeing me, without me saying a word. AND you're not the least disturbed by the fact that I now appear to be a decade younger than I should?" After checking his watch, Hakuba was more than surprised, perhaps even a little _disturbed_, at the other child's excessively calm expression as they walked down the street.

*about a minute earlier*

"_Hakuba Saguru-san?!"_

_Just then, Ran's voice came from her own room. "Conan-kun, are your friends here? Why don't you invite them in?"_

_Conan was quick to shout his reply. "Ran-neechan, we're actually going down to the park! I'll be back later!" He immediately started pushing the shrunken detective back down the stairs._

"_Just make sure you're back before dinner!" came Ran's reply from wherever._

"_Hai!!"_

_***_

And with that, Hakuba found himself being rushed back onto the sidewalk.

"We'll have to hurry. If the Shonen Tantei-dan ever see you here." Conan visibly shuddered.

"And…may I ask where in the world we're going?"

"Someplace you can explain how the _hell_ you got mixed up in all of this."

…

Conan hardly knocked as he entered Agasa's home. He really would have preferred to use his own house, but that really wasn't an option when the lock for the gate was a full foot higher than his current reach.

"AGASA-HAKASE!!" Conan shouted. "Hakase, it's me, Conan!" he continued to call around the house.

There was an explosion somewhere around the corner. Hakuba could practically see Conan sweat-dropping as if he were in some sort of kid's anime.

Said Agasa-hakase eventually poked his soot-covered head out. "Ah, Shi—Conan-kun!" He'd quickly changed what he was going to say when he saw Hakuba behind Conan. "What a surprise! I'll assume you're here for a reason, eh?"

"Hai, Hakase. Can you open Shinichi-niichan's house for us? I wanna give—eh—my guest a tour!" Conan put on a sunny smile any almost-normal kid would.

"Of course, Conan-kun. I'll go get the spare key." He left and came back, dangling the key. "Well, come on, you two."

Agasa opened the gate for them, Conan thanked him politely, then the professor left. Conan led Hakuba into the Kudo Mansion, clearly knowing the place almost like his own home. Kudo Shinichi—a famous highschool detective that had never left a case unsolved—what was Conan-kun's relationship with the meitantei?

Conan sighed. Regretfully? Mournfully? Or maybe he was just tired. "Well, Hakuba-san, you might as well sit down and start talking." The child had looked back up and was staring at him with those determined, frightfully _focused_ young eyes.

Hakuba obliged. The kid obviously knew something about that organization that appeared to be behind it all. "Well, not much to say, really. I don't have any recollection of _doing_ anything. I came home from school today and these guys knocked me out in my own house then gave me the poison." He shrugged submissively. "And when I woke up, KID appe—"

"KID?" Conan eyed him in surprise. "Kaitou KID?"

The second detective wasn't quite sure, but he'd subconsciously assumed that Edogawa had been informed. Apparently not.

"Kaitou KID told me that we were 'against the same organization.'" Briefly reviewing the encounter, he turned back to the youngest tantei he'd ever met. "Do you have an idea of what he means by that?" Conan's face darkened immediately upon hearing this. Behind his glasses, Hakuba could see the great mind working through countless questions. "Well, before he left me nearby Mouri-san's, the last thing he said was something about not having a nickname for me anymore." This statement brought a smirk onto Conan's face.

"Of course. If I'm Tantei-kun to KID-san, then you'd be Tantei-san. But it'd be strange to be calling a grade-schooler by –san, wouldn't it?" Conan chuckled. "Well, I can probably help you some. But you'll have to come up with a persona—and that starts with finding you a name."

Conan promptly hopped off his spot on the sofa, running along the bookshelves, as if scouring for information. He walked around almost as though he owned the place—once more raising the question of who or what Conan was.

"Hm…anything to do with Sherlock or Holmes is far too obvious…" He turned back to Hakuba. "You gonna help me find you a decent pseudonym?" he asked expectantly before returning to the numerous mystery books on the shelves. "Besides, I'll assume you'd rather not end up with something way out of the blue."

Blinking, and trying not to think about possible names he _could_ end up with, Hakuba promptly joined the child who appeared to be only slightly younger than him. It _should_ have been much more than slightly.

After looking around for inspiration, he finally thought of something. "Akechi…Hirai Akechi. ((1)) " He breathed. _And I'm going to have to live with this name…_

"It works," came his companion's indifferent reply. "Now for some sort of disguise…"

"Wait, Conan-kun," Hakuba, quite _impolitely_ interrupted, "what exactly is this all about? My 'conversation' with KID didn't exactly give me much information."

He couldn't see the child's eyes. "Let's just say it's big. Big enough that if anybody, _anybody_, knew this secret, even the police, then it wouldn't take long before the enemy found out and that would be the end of us."

"And your part?"

"…You could say I'm a victim of sorts." What he meant by that, Hakuba—no, Akechi, he reminded himself—had no clue.

~CHAPTER END~

AN://

No, Hakuba does not find out about Conan being Kudo. I know that most people make it seem somewhat easy to connect the dots ((I mean, just look at Hattori!)), but Heiji ((and am I going by first name or last?!)) only figured it out because he'd been _looking_ for Kudo, and even saw him once. Hakuba, on the other hand, has never had anything to do with Shinichi, perhaps only having seen him in the paper and heard him being mentioned. He has, though, seen Conan twice (if I'm not mistaken) and probably sees a (overly) brilliant little kid.

Kogoro Akechi is the main detective of Edogawa Rampo's mysteries. (thank Wikipedia) Edogawa Rampo's real name is Hirai Taro. Thus, Hirai Akechi. I'm lazy, I only used one mystery writer. So sue me.

Disclaimer://

No, of course I don't own Detective Conan, but I DO own Magic Kaito, which would explain why I have a very blurry idea of Hakuba's character and am completely and utterly clueless when it comes to his eye color.

_Well, despite what I've said, these things are actually getting shorter…_

Please inform me of how the pace is, whether the writing's good…anything…mostly the pace.

I'm bad at cliffhangers.


	4. Another Point of View

~CHAPTER START~

Kuroba almost felt bad abandoning little Hakuba-kun at the not-so random street bench. The poor guy was probably panicking to death right about now, trying to figure out what sublimal message the clear-as-daylight note had said. He snickered evilly at the thought.

At the moment, he was at home, at his desk, pencil in hand, paper in front of him. No, he wasn't doing homework, _duh_, he'd finished that hours ago. Nor was he planning his latest heist, though the blueprints hiding nearby were just about calling his name.

He was planning, no doubt about that. It was mostly precautions—

Of course the Organization would suspect something if their cameras were forever frozen on a still body. They'd probably expect the police to come by sometime. Or at least someone. There had to be somebody to find the body. He'd have to find an excuse.

Of course Hakuba had no social life whatsoever to speak of—what kind of person came by the tantei's house out of the blue? Okay, so there was _that one person_. He deflated in frustration. When it came down to it, _he_ was likely the solitary human being who would willingly, even if just to prank/bother/annoy/pester the other teenager. And, he was sure, the majority of people who saw a dead body would call the police. So, put it all together, and, in order to not look suscpiscious, he would have to…first enable the cameras…then leave without being _seen_ by said cameras…then enter again as Kuroba…then find Hakuba's dead body…and contact the police.

One kink in his evil plot: There was no such dead body. Hakuba was, by now, hopefully in the hands of the only other detective that he trusted. And no dummy he could ever pull off would last very long in the hands of a full on investigation. He ran a hand through his hair. This would take a while.

…

Conan hadn't been entirely sure what to do about Hakuba appearing at his (*cough* Mouri's) front door. Of course he'd recognized the blonde—given the scarce number living in Japan. And, thank goodness, Mouri-san had been completely and utterly drunk, and Ran was doing her homework. He'd quickly ushered Hakuba back out the door and to his own home, thinking some fairly colorful words throughout.

_If Hakuba managed to get on the Black Org's hitlist_, Conan—_Shinichi_—mused, _and knowing a little about Hakuba's associations, he's there either for simply being a decent detective or having something to do with Kaitou KID_. He tried to imagine how chasing a phantom thief could possible get someone on a list of _Most Threatening_ for a huge, powerful crime syndicate, but by the time Agasa's house (and his) was in view, he still hadn't come up with anything.

Sometime along the way, some hunch simply told him not to tell Hakuba. He'd only willingly told someone his secret once—and that was when he'd only first shrunk and was scared to death. Everyone else who knew his secret had figured it out for themselves, in a matter of speaking. Ai had seemingly known from the start. Heiji really did figure it out. His parents…well, they tended to be an exception to everything. Agasa had told them.

It wasn't that he didn't want Hakuba to know, he simply had a…reluctance to say it outright. Call it paranoia.

If he had been totally against it, he probably wouldn't have shown him into _his own home_.

After Hakuba decided on his pseudonym, Conan thought for a little and looked at the other meitantei-turned-little-kid. "You know, you stick out like a sore thumb. You'll need some sort of disguise."

"Quite obviously," he agreed, fingering a lock of his blonde hair.

"We should dye it," suggested Conan, with next to no hesitation.

He could practically see Hakuba weighing the options, obviously having a preference to leave his hair color as is.

And, hardly seconds into this specific train of thought, a certain brown-haired little girl invited herself into the house. "Edogawa-kun, you left the gate open," she informed him, in a voice that clearly said that wasn't why she came. Her eyes flashed to the other _guest_ and she promptly introduced herself, before walking (in a walk that seemed quite aggravated) to Conan and whispering to Conan.

"_Kudo-kun, what's this about?"_ Her expression (even if appearing very blank), her voice, everything said that this wasn't exactly a first.

"_Psssh! Later Haibara!"_ He quickly turned back to _Akechi_.

He coughed. "Well, yeah, this is Haibara-san, and she's the creator of the drug that shrank you." He could practically _feel_ her evil glare latching itself onto his head the moment he said it. _Well, Haibara-san, you'll just have to live with it for a little. After all, if he's a victim, then chances are he's not going to leak to them, right?_ He hoped.

And between that and Hakuba's suspiscious, questioning glance, he thought he could just crumble. What. An. Awkward. Situation. He coughed again. "_Well_, Haibara here is my source on the Organization. And why I…was…"

He could tell Haibara was glaring again. _Geez, it hasn't helped the situation at all…_

"…I was aware that people could shrink!" he concluded, chuckling nervously and completely evading the fact that he himself shrank long before he'd even met Haibara. He hoped the scientist would play along. _Kami, how do I get myself into these situations…?_

He probably sounded a lot like the little kid he was pretending to be. Was that a good thing…? He mentally shrugged.

This scenario, he felt, left him quite clueless. Had any normal person come up to him and asked if he was Kudo or even suspected him, he would have immediately dropped into _oh-goodness-I-gotta-find-some-way-to-get-out-of-this_ mode. It was…his default. He'd even avoided Haibara at first, but she _really_ knew everything. And Hattori eventually figured it out and _blackmailed_ him into telling.

And now here was Hakuba, completely clueless, but easily not in Shinichi's dictionary definition of "normal people." Gah, after running his head in circles, he'd finally gone back to default.

…

Hakuba wasn't quite sure how to react. Or, rather, what his reaction was. He was definitely stunned, perhaps a little angry—after all, wasn't the cause of his problem standing right in front of him? But then again, the other detective was standing there, clearly having a great deal of trust in the girl. Wait—girl?

"So how old is she?" he reasoned. He couldn't fathom a little girl creating a poison that could de-age people, albeit painfully. Thus, he deduced, she too was not the age she appeared.

Conan sighed in relief—mentally, that is—Hakuba had bought his little story. And Haibara was still silent.

Hakuba, completely unaware of the silent war raging under actual conversation, looked at this Haibara for the answer to his question.

"Eighteen." Her answer was clear and simple. Conan was amused—had Ai really answered with her actual age the first time—when she'd told him, she'd joked around.

Hakuba shook his head. It was still pretty hard to believe that someone that young could create something like that…

"I was part of said organization. I created the poison, though that wasn't its original intention, and they started using it as an untraceable, lethal poison. They then decided to kill my sister, who was also a part of the org and was at the time trying to buy my freedom. They kill her, then imprison me. I took one of the pills as an attempt at suicide, but instead I shrank and escaped." Conan's eyes bugged. Not only had Haibara remembered to leave out Kudo Shinichi entirely, but she'd just told her entire story.

They'd already come this far, so he decided to play along. "We've been trying to uncover the organization for months now. But it's a little hard; she has to hide her identity and I'm still only seven." _This is…embarassing…_ "So to everyone else, we're just little kids, no matter what we do." Hopefully Hakuba would simply accept this too…

Hakuba nodded. "Makes sense." It was logical enough…then again, de-aging ten years defied pretty much all logic…

Just then, Conan's cellphone started ringing, startling all three "children." He quickly pulled it out of his pocket. "Ran," he muttered, before flipping it open. "Moshi-moshi?"

"CONAN-KUN!" The other two could hear the high-pitched whining from the phone.

"H-hai, Ran-neechan?"

"I told you to be home by dinner! Have you checked the time?!"

"Eh?"

"IT'S NEARLY EIGHT!! Dinner'll be cold if you don't come home quickly!"

Conan nodded, forgetting that Ran couldn't see. "I'll be home in a bit, Ran-neechan!" He hung up.

"Hakuba-kun," Conan started. _It felt so good to call someone –kun that was actually his own age to begin with..._ "You can stay here for the night at least. Okiya-san's out of town for the week, and he's the only one living here. There's probably some food in the fridge. You can talk to Agasa-hakase if you need anything. I'll call him to let him know." He gestured upstairs. "Nobody's here for now, so all the bedrooms are available."

_Kudo Shinichi isn't here? And he won't mind?_ thought Hakuba absentmindedly, before reminding himself that Kudo Shinichi was currently missing. Conan seemed to be caretaker of the house or something along those lines.

Haibara simply turned and left, quietly. It was almost eerie, seeing that calm coolness in a little girl. It was easy to forget that she, too, was a teenager. Eyes can be decieving.

And Conan, too, started to walk out the door. "Well, Ha—Hirai-kun, I better get going. Ran-neechan's a karate expert! I don't wanna be late," he said in his little kid voice. He closed the door behind him, leaving Hirai Akechi surrounded by nothing but books.

~CHAPTER END~

AN://

Okay, so looking around (on Wikipedia), I realized that Akechi is actually the family name, not the first name. Oh well, we'll just pretend that it's suitable for a first name. I'm not Japanese nor do I have any knowledge of the language (except some of the honorifics and various words picked up from anime. XD)

Thanks for all the reviews, guys, it's really, really encouraging. :3 I know I've already replied to a few….but I can't remembe which, so I'll just reply to a few here. Bleh.

BakaAkki—XD Yes, Conan is very good. And Hakuba's too stunned to say anything.

Sunny Lighter—Thanks a lot. I've been trying to figure it out…half the pictures he's in have him with blue eyes or turquoise or even red. And I was a bit too lazy to check the actual anime for the episodes he's in.

And to those who were saying update soon…well, I'll be typing. :3

Disclaimer://

I don't own Detective Conan, Magic Kaito, or…well…anything. I do own this computer I'm typing on though. Wait—technically this is my hand-me-down from my older brother. And Dad probably paid for it anyways. I suppose I don't own all this then either.


	5. Let's Go Shopping!

AN:// You may notice I've edited the first part. Mostly for plot reasons. Small details, so don't fret.

~CHAPTER START~

Black attire. A secluded, silent, place—somewhere purposely chosen for not being the first place you'd go for a secret conversation, yet also being adequately suitable for such.

"Vodka—report."

The subordinate hesitated for a moment, but only for that moment. Any longer and he'd certainly face some horrible punishment. "The cameras we'd placed in Hakuba Saguru's household were disabled shortly after we left. We have no idea whether or not the target has survived."

There was a moment of terrifying silence.

"That the cameras were disabled after we left means that Hakuba was not alone—somebody was there helping him. Not only was he in the picture at the time of the stop, but there is no possibility that, with the pain caused by APTX 4869, he could possibly reach the cameras, much less be aware of their presence." The blonde paused in thought.

"But, Aniki, who would help Hakuba? His listed closest friends are mere aquaintances at most."

An aggravated expression crossed "Aniki"'s face. "Kaitou KID." It was stated simply, a fact, but the voice that said it was filled with none other than…rage. "That phantom thief that's managed to evade us for the past decade," he grumbled.

Vodka remained silent. He was sure if he said anything, then Gin would…

"At the announcement of KID's next heist, have at least half a dozen snipers on him." Judging by reports of previous attempts on KID's life, they would need that many or more for a successful assasination.

"Yes, Aniki." Vodka promptly left to carry out his instructions.

…

Gin remained for a few moments. An interesting, if irritating development. First, the disappearance of Kudo Shinichi—and around the same time, the reappearance of Kaitou KID. Then, Sherry's empty cell, after an attempt to betray the organization. They should have, in his opinion, simply executed her then and there. And now, this little mess with Hakuba Saguru, in need of cleaning.

Everything needed cleaning. And despite everything that they had done to accomplish just that, the status remained the same. It was truly frustrating.

He would have to go to his superiors about this. And once it was in their hands, it could possibly leave his.

Either way, in the end, he would have all the pests dead in front of him. Cold. Clean. Dead.

…

Morning. Hakuba woke up…strange, his alarm clock didn't ring. He got up from the guest room bed he'd slept in, pushed off the blankets, swung his feet to the side of the bed, and…

Fell face-flat on the floor.

Pulling himself up, he swore under his breath for forgetting that he was, for the moment, only a little taller than Conan—not even waist height in his old body. He dragged himself to the kitchen and started looking through the cabinets and fridge—he was starving, having had no dinner the previous night.

Hakuba groaned. This would be a long day—and what was he supposed to do with his time?

…

Conan yawned as he got out of bed. It was amazing, really, how it was even possible to sleep through Mouri-san's snoring. Adjusting his glasses and getting dressed, he was soon drowzily sitting at the table waiting for breakfast. Ran was already starting to prepare the meal.

"Morning, Conan-kun."

"Good morning, Ran-neechan."

And so normal morning rituals started. It was so normal, in fact, that Conan nearly forgot about Hakuba. Blinking in realization, he quickly finished his food, grabbed his backpack and skateboard, and rushed out the door with a fast "Ran-neechan, I forgot! I left something at Dr. Agasa's! I'll go right to school once I pick it up!" And he was out the door.

…

On his skateboard, it didn't take long. Hakuba was probably eating something by now. But he had to make sure that the shrunken detective was okay, at least. Perhaps he'd drag him to school—no, that would have to wait until Hakuba had some sort of disguise.

Halfway there, he almost ran over Ai, who looked hardly surprised that he was there.

"So, _Edogawa-kun_, are you now going to explain?"

He blinked first. "Ah, okay," he sighed in resignation. He very quickly recounted everything Hakuba had told him. He couldn't tell what the chemist was thinking from her expression.

"So, the Organization is now expanding their list." She closed her eyes and sighed. "This is bad. By now, I suppose they've learned not to leave a APTX victim unmonitored—thank goodness our friendly neighborhood phantom thief decided to pitch in and give Hakuba a little assistance—if not, they'd probably already be onto us by now." Looking back up, she chuckled. "It's lucky that you're not known to have much of a connection to him. If they haven't found out that another supposedly dead target had simply disappeared, they will soon. And they won't hesitate to search and destroy."

A grim frown passed over Conan's face for a moment. But it couldn't last long—both of them would have to be at school in—oh, shit, hardly two minutes—or they'd be late. And he never checked up on Hakuba—well, he hoped the shrunken detective could cope for the day.

Haibara, too, checked her watch. A silent message of _Oh no! We're SCREWED if we're late!_ passed between them, and both started sprinting in the general direction of Teitan Elementary, at least until Conan remembered he still had his solar-powered skateboard.

…

Kuroba Kaito swung his backpack down by his desk. Newspaper in hand, he flipped through the numerous articles. "Good, no sign of anything concerning a certain detective having disappeared…that means nobody's found out. Yet," he muttered to himself.

"Hey, Kaito-kun! What are you muttering about?" Aoko's curiosity caught him by surprise.

"WAH! Aoko, don't do that! Anyhow, have you seen Hakuba-san?" He couldn't show any sign of knowing that Hakuba-san was currently a little kid. Or that anything was out of the ordinary. For now, only Kaitou KID knew (as well as anyone little Tantei-kun decided to tell)—Kuroba Kaito did not.

He let out a huge sigh. "Ah well, I guess he must be sick or on vacation or something."

"But, Kaito!" Aoko protested, "Most of the students aren't even at school yet!"

Kaito nearly choked on his slip. Whoops. He never let the thought past his poker face, though, and quickly made up a (valid) excuse. "Baro! The guy's usually here the instant we're allowed in. It's strange if he's even a minute late!" He congratulated himself silently for his very fast excuse that might actually work.

"But still, you can't say that just because he's not here right now means tha--"

Kaito had chosen the moment to begin his normal skirt-flipping routine. "Plain white? How boring, Aoko!" And thus the mop-chase ensued. He really wished that in light of the situation, someone up there making decisions on how the world would turn would cut him some slack. Even as he "gleefully" dodged the terrifying mop and pulled pranks on random members of the class (and almost accidentally tossing something at Hakuba's empty desk), he groaned inwardly. The things he did to make the situation look normal…

What he needed was a decent, difficult heist. It'd help him clear his head to pull a few pranks on Nakamori, stump a troop of police officers here, pluck the target there. But, for the moment at least, he had to make sure that Hakuba-kun's _situation_ was somewhat secure…

His distraction earned him a good whack. It reminded him that he needed to keep running, or else he'd have a mop impaled on his head and Aoko standing over him victoriously. He wasn't sure which scared him more.

…

The school day passed by horribly slowly. Like dragging a truck through syrup, thought Conan absentmindedly as the class went over the multiples for the nine millionth time. At least he wasn't the only one in the class bored to death—there was Haibara, obviously, a prodigy even at her natural age. But even Ayumi and Mitsuhiko were somewhat above-average, for seven-year-olds, that is. He was sure that, even though they didn't mind the repetitive chanting over and over and over again, they probably weren't having any trouble memorizing the facts either. Genta, on the other hand…

And when he thought that he couldn't stand another second of it, the bell finally rang. He hurried home, not wanting to get caught up in the Shonen Tantei-dan's antics now, of all times. He still had to check in with Hakuba.

He told Ran he was going to Agasa-hakase's—his general excuse for everything (and not quite a lie, he _was_ right next door)—and she readily accepted it.

Agasa's turbo skateboard _really_ came in handy.

…

Hakuba had decided to spend the day looking around Kudo's house. There was the library (mostly mystery books, to his joy), the kitchen (hopelessly empty—it didn't show many signs of having a chef around for most of the time), and more bedrooms than one person living along would ever need. His polite upbringing restrained him from looking through any of Kudo's files or personal belongings, but he did read a few of the books in the time spent waiting around.

After half the day had passed, he decided to go see this Agasa-hakase. He knocked on the door, partly because it was how he'd been taught, mostly because he could hardly reach the doorknob even if he tried. Then again, he wasn't nearly as short as Conan, and the little boy seemed to have few problems.

Edogawa Conan: What time he hadn't spent reading and looking around, he'd spent thinking about his "host." The young boy was horribly, almost disturbingly mature for his age. And no kid that age would be immune to the sights of dead bodies, even if he'd been toted around by a careless detective (even if it was the meitantei Mouri Kogoro). Heck, most kids _his_ own age would still cringe. He supposed it was simply a trait common to detectives in general. But for now, he could only observe the other boy and gather data. Data to show him who exactly Edogawa Conan was.

The door opened, interrupting his thoughts. "Ah, Ha—Hirai-kun! Conan-kun just called and told me you'd be coming." _In other words, Conan just recently informed you of what to tell and what to keep secret_. He was sure that the other child was hiding something.

"Ai-chan will be home soon, and Conan-kun will probably be coming too." Hakuba nodded politely.

It was only a few minutes before Ai arrived, shortly followed by Conan, who simply tossed his things onto the floor as the place was a second thing. He placed his skateboard on one of the tables. Hakuba noticed some scorched looking wiring. What the…now what was that doing on a skateboard?!

"Sorry, Hakuba-kun, I couldn't come by this morning," apologized Conan. He could hear him muttering "stupid school…" over and over again as Conan walked off to get something to drink. It was getting close to the end of the school year, and the weather was very nearly boiling.

"Hakase!" Conan yelled from the kitchen. The fridge could be heard as he pushed it shut. "I need you to repair my skateboard, something exploded on my way here." The seven-year-old walked back into the main room, a glass of water in hand. "And I wasn't even doing anything—I was hardly even using the turbo feature!" Ah, so that was the function of that mess under the board…

As Conan went about his own things, turning on the TV so that he could watch something other than Yoko Okino, Haibara left for what Hakuba assumed was her own personal lab—after all, she was a chemist and she was staying with Agasa-hakase, an inventor of his own. But he was surprised when she came back out after only a few seconds.

She approached him, holding out a small pill. "Go find some clothes in your normal size, take this. It's a temporary cure for APTX 4869, the poison they gave you; you'll return to your normal form and remain so for approximately 24 hours, depending. Use that time to tie up any loose ends and make sure the people you care about are okay. The organization doesn't leave things open for speculation."

"A cure? If there is one, then why are you…?"

"Eight years old?" she sighed, sadly smiling the very slightest bit. "The cure lasts progressively less time for each time you take it. Besides, I have nothing to go back to now."

He nodded numbly, accepting the pill. He wasn't sure when he'd be able to take it—going to his own house would be going straight to where they expected him to be. And it wasn't as if he could contact Kaitou KID (or Kuroba for that matter) and ask the thief to steal some of his own clothes. But it would be helpful if he ever needed to escape the short, limited body.

Agasa coughed politely, clearing his throat. "It'd look suspicious if a little kid was looking for clothes by himself. I'll go with you if you need clothes in either size. You can't go around wearing that all the time," he said pointedly.

Hakuba quickly agreed, recent memories of sleeping in his current clothes all night. Uncomfortable, to say the least.

"Well, then, it's settled. How about we just go now?" suggested the professor.

Hakuba felt a hat getting gently shoved into his chest. A blue baseball cap. In their conversation, nobody had noticed Conan turning off the TV to join them. "Here, you still need to hid somehow." The kid was so _cheerful_ when he said it. So matter-of-fact. He simply nodded and put it on, covering quite a bit of his hair and his eyes, at least from anyone of normal height.

Agasa opened the door, and they started to walk out…

~CHAPTER END~

AN://

XD Next chapter will be FUN. At least the beginning. :DD Some veeeery…sinister characters will be making their first appearance of the story. HAVE FUN GUESSING.

Pretztailfan—Hah! Glad I could (almost) convert you! I must admit, Hakuba never was my favorite either. His character's just so damn annoying, he's hard to like. Gosho Aoyama's Hakuba hardly has any appearances, and it's pretty hard to build a character from just that. But then again, he's a meitantei equal or nearly equal our two friends Kudo and Hattori. Plus he's got to deal with Kuroba—but he manages to stay completely aloof of what's actually going on. Involved but not involved. And his character produces some very, very entertaining fanfics. XD

BTW, is this long enough? 8D?

Mel72000—Hm…maybe, but he strikes me as the type who will say nothing and just observe for the loooooooongest time, and not do anything until he is completely 100% sure that he is correct. Or at least from what he can see.

ALSO, to everyone who's paying attention and reading this:

The next chapter may take some time before I put it up. Now that the basic problem's been laid down, I want to solidify my (nearly nonexistent for the moment) plot and ensure that there's an actual story going on here.

DISCLAIMER://

I do not own Detective Conan, Magic Kaito, or anything else related to said…things…in any way. If I did, I wouldn't be loafing around trying to decide when I should start my first ever comic. And what it should be. Note the first ever.


	6. Plans

~CHAPTER START~

…and they ran straight into the Shonen Tantei-dan.

Ayumi, Genta and Mitsuhiko had invited themselves in straight until Agasa's door. As they normally would, on a daily basis. At first they looked surprised, as expected when you run open a door, and someone on the other side just _happens_ to open it at the exact same moment, resulting in an instant collision. But it took mere moments for them to regain their normal bouncy cheerfulness, completely missing the fact that there was one child more than normal for a whole five seconds. (_Hakuba: …5.23001)_

"Ne, Conan-kun, Ai-chan, who's that boy standing behind Agasa-hakase?" Of course Ayumi would notice first—she was probably the most perceptive of the three _actual_ kids compromising the little group. _Now_, thought Conan, _there's as many shrunken kids as normal kids in the Shonen Tantei-dan. Unless Hakuba_ somehow _manages to escape their grasp_. He almost chuckled at the thought, but thankfully the others had started clamoring to see the new kid, and none were paying attention to his own muffled sounds.

"Hello, my name is Tsubaraya Mitsuhiko. What's yours?"

"And I'm Genta!"

"Yoshida Ayumi! Nice to meet you!"

Agasa chuckled nervously. "Ehehe…Kids, this is Hirai Akechi, he's…er…Ai's cousin visiting from…" he paused, not quite knowing what to say. And now all three kids had their attention on the professor.

"England!" Conan quickly said, desperately hoping that they wouldn't suspect anything. _So much for finding him a disguise…if we dyed his hair now, the kids'll have seen him…_

There was a horrible, long 2 seconds of silence (_Hakuba: …1.98304_) until Ayumi happily ignored any doubts she might have. Well, why would he suspect eight-year-olds to be overly suspecting? Conan was sure he was becoming paranoid.

"Wooow!" Ayumi's sunny smile and Genta and Mitsuhiko soon followed suit. After all, two seconds wasn't really that long. The kids continued to voice their amazement until Conan managed to edge close enough to 'Akechi' to whisper.

"_Try to act a bit like a kid, would ya?_"

…

Hakuba froze as the little kids (and Genta was actually taller than him, annoyingly enough) jumped to introduce themselves. He'd try to act like a kid, sure, but _how_ was there even time to reply?! The kids would announce something new and hardly leave a second between their comments. He gulped. This would be hard.

"Akechi-kun, do you wanna join the Shonen Tantei-dan?" Whoah-whoah-_whoah_. Since when was the relationship on a first-name basis? …Albeit it was a _fake_ first name, but still.

"Yeah, you should join!"

"Join or I'll force you!"

'Akechi' chuckled at the hyperactive kids, hopelessly surrounded on all sides by now. Well, not exactly 'chuckled,' it was more of… anyhow, his height didn't help either; he was shorter than both Genta and Mitsuhiko, although only the slightest bit so as compared to the latter.

To his relief, Agasa replied for him. "Now, now, Akechi-kun will only be here for a few days, and after that, he'll be leaving—he can't join the Shonen Tantei-dan and do anything in that time," he reminded them.

The kids visibly deflated for a whole 12.407 seconds (_Conan: You could just say 12, or even 10…doesn't make that much of a difference… _) …it almost made him feel sorry for them. "Aah…uhm…alright, just for the days I'm here though." He wasn't sure if he said it to make them feel better or just to escape the pressure at least for the moment.

The kids immediately brightened up again. "Well come on, Akechi-kun, we were just about to go look for a missing cat today!" Hakuba sighed. A missing _cat_? Well, of course a little kids' detective club probably wouldn't run into many difficult cases, but…looking for a lost pet? His eye was probably twitching.

Agasa interrupted again. "Akechi-kun can't go today, I'm sorry. Conan-kun, Ai-kun, and I were going to take him to buy some clothes right now."

"Aawwww," Ayumi, first as always, pouted. "But I suppose we can take him with us tomorrow, ne, Akechi-kun?" Hakuba found himself in a position where it was impossible to simply refuse them without (at least temporarily) breaking their hearts.

"Well, we must be off then," confirmed Agasa, as he started to herd the little kids out along the path, Conan and Ai silently following behind. Hakuba decided he'd follow suit, and started to walk. Agasa-hakase closed the door behind them. In all the excitement, nobody had noticed it was still open the entire time.

After the kids were gone, all four gave a sigh of relief. Agasa led them to his car, a beaten down yellow bug. And an inventor had this kind of car because…? Didn't most inventors (or the ones he knew) get really rich and buy the most expensive cars possible?—or something along those lines.

The old car spluttered to a start, shaking all the occupants as they shuffled into their seats: Conan sat in front, Ai and Hakuba in the back.

…

The mall, as always, was crowded with shoppers, couples, and groups of girls simply hanging out together. Every chair, every store, filled with people, primarily teens.

It made Hakuba uncomfortable—more people equals greater chances of needing to interact. And interaction wasn't his forte. Not nearly so. And the vast majority, though normally he'd fit right in, wasn't even his apparent age. The idea was unnerving, to say the least.

Not only that…but there was that chance that he could run into someone he knew. Specifically Koizumi and Kuroba—Koizumi's freaky mind-reading would probably expose him (and likely in a riddle) in the blink of an eye, and Kuroba…well, he was one of the sharper tools in the shed. And he'd not hesitate to prank him, tease him, or outright humiliate him.

But, he reminded himself, Kuroba-kun is Kaitou KID, which means he already knows, which means he (hopefully) won't play too many tricks. What part of his mind was it that kept him from making that connection when the thought first came? Could he seriously be thinking subconciously that Kaito and KID were two separate people? Geez, since when did it get to the point at which his _own_ mind started baffling him?

He allowed himself to be led into various clothing stores, choosing a few articles of clothing each time—sometimes in little-kid size, sometimes in normal size. And, thankfully, it went fairly smoothly. If anyone ever asked Agasa-hakase why he was buying clothes obviously not the size of anyone present, he would simply say he was buying them as a gift to his nephew.

At least, it went smoothly until he noticed movment out of the corner of his eye: a shadow from behind the wall here, a glimpse of a shoe there. Subtle, yes, but someone was most definitely following them. Doing his best to keep at his current task (which, of course, was still picking clothes to wear), he watched silently, until he finally spotted three pairs of eyes peeking from behind a rack of clothes.

He turned around to check it out, and the heads quickly hid again.

"Ayumi-chan, Genta-kun, Mitsuhiko-kun, you can stop hiding now," came Conan's voice in bored monotone. Apparently he'd noticed too.

The guilty trio walked out from their hiding place; Genta and Mitsuhiko looked downright disappointed, but Ayumi was forever cheerful.

"Wow, Akechi-kun, you were able to figure us out like that!" She smiled happily. _Yeah right_, thought Hakuba to himself. _You guys were shadowing almost as if you wanted to be seen_. But he didn't say it—he knew better than to make it seem like he knew any more about detectives, after seeing their initial reaction when they'd first met.

They then did somewhat of a huddle, whispering in voices still loud enough for him to catch most of what they were saying.

"…should really have him join!"

"…make him…!"

"SSSH Genta-kun, he might hear us…!" …Already too late for that…

He turned back to looking at clothes, hoping to find something else to occupy his thoughts…and hopefully get them to lose interest in him…he could see Conan blantantly staring at the other kids, eye twitching. At least Hakuba wasn't the only one. Haibara was simply standing in the corner reading.

"…should live with Agasa-hakase and go to school with us!" Now _that_ was a scary thought…elementary school all over again—and that was after he'd graduated from college. He'd _already_ been through months of high school all over again, all to watch Kuroba. He wasn't sure how Haibara had managed; after all, she was an eighteen-year-old scientist that had managed to create a drug that _shrank_ people. Elementary school should be melting her brain by now.

At this time, he'd chosen about eight outfits for his…diminished size, and two normal. The shopping trip would be over soon, thankfully, and he could retreat to silence before the day was over.

_riiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiinnnnnnnnnnnnnnggg—riiiiiiiinnnnnnnnnnngg_

Everyone present who had a cellphone with them reflexively checked their pockets. "Mine," muttered Conan, pulling his cellphone out of one of his pockets and finding his way out of sight, while, curiously, also pulling some…red cloth? out of another pocket.

Conan was gone before he could hear any conversation.

It shouldn't have been suspicious. Really, anybody would leave a noisy mall for somewhere quiet to have a conversation on the phone. But something bugged him—he couldn't quite tell what, but he had a hunch that something wasn't quite right. He started to take a step in the direction Conan had gone, but…

"I think we can go back to the car and wait for Conan there." Ai's voice was cold, hard, and emotionless. "We've done enough shopping now, and I still haven't done my homework." She said _homework_ like one would say chores. Agasa nodded, and started herding everyone in said direction—conveniently opposite the way Conan had disappeared to.

He'd have to watch Conan later.

…

"A _date_?! Ran, you know I'm busy on this case and I'm not around…" Shinichi started.

"SHINICHI!" He flinched and held the phone far from his ear to avoid damaging his eardrums… "I _know_ you're in Japan, if not even closer! No matter what time it is that I call, you're able to pick up, and you don't sound tired or sleep deprived, so you can't be that far away!" He stared at nothing in particular, paling. Since when had Ran noticed things like that? She must have talked to Sonoko forever to come up with that deduction. _Thank Kami nobody can see me right now_, he thought from his place in the empty bathrooms.

"Well, sorry, Ran, I just can't—"

"Shinichi…" her voice told him that she would owe him a punch strong enough to go through a concrete wall if he refused.

"Okay, OKAY! I'll come! But you haven't even said when or where!"

"This Thursday, after school ends, at Tropical Land. We never finished that date, remember? Oh, and by the way, Conan's been a little bit sick lately, so I have to babysit him for the day. I hope you don't mind." Oh, right, he did have a bit of a cough. And Thursday was the last day of school at Teitan Highschool…he'd nearly forgotten.

"Well, I couldn't possibly leave him with Tousan, so we're stuck taking him with us on our date." Was it just him or was there a hint of sly mischief in her voi—WAIT, he AND Conan had to be there? Oh, geez.

"Uhm…Shinichi, are you still there?"

"Hm? Oh, yeah, I can live with that." Only…two days?! Would Haibara even _give_ him the antidote for such a small thing? "Oh, is the shrimp bringing his little entourage with him too?"

"Huh? The Shonen-Tantei? Hm…maybe they'd want to come. I think we can bring them." Oh, geez, what had he just gone and gotten himself into?

"Well…okay, then. See you there," he said, hanging up his cellphone and turning off the voice changer. Shinichi ran a hand through his hair. Now how was he supposed to pull this one off? And not only that, but Ran's voice said she _knew_ or at least thought she knew. Problem!

But, standing outside of the mall, he couldn't do anything about it right now. Maybe they could pull the same trick he had at the school play? …That would be asking quite a bit of Haibara.

Agasa-hakase's yellow beetle pulled up in front of him—whoops, he'd forgotten they were leaving. The kids must have gotten impatient. He ran over and hopped into the front passenger seat—when his other phone rang. He pulled it out of his pocket…

…

Akechi was about to ask who had called when another ringing came. Conan, once again, pulled out his phone—strangely, out of the opposite pocket from before. Didn't people usually make it a habit to keep things in the same place each time? Apparently Conan didn't.

"Moshimoshi?"

…

"Really, Ran-neechan? All of us?"

…

"Shinichi-niichan will be there?!" Conan sat up abruptly at this.

…

"Hai! I'll ask them, everyone's here right now!" Conan covered the mic on the phone and turned toward the back of the car, which was, at the moment, crowded with five little kids trying to squish in together. "Hey, you guys wanna come to Tropical Land on Thursday? Ran-neechan's offering to chaperone, and Shinichi-niichan will be there too!"

There was a chorus of affirmation.

"Shinichi-niichan? Ran-neechan's detective boyfriend?" Was it just him, or could he see Conan blushing the slightest bit.

"Shinichi-niichan's not Ran-neechan's boyfriend!" Conan cut in quickly, almost panicking. "…or, at least that's what Ran-neechan always tells me whenever I say something about it." Conan had a look on his face that was just shouting that it was a poor excuse trying to cover up something else. Huh?

"Whee! Let's all go!"

"Yeah!"

"Yes! I can go!"

"I should ask my mom first…"

Conan went back to his cellphone. "Ran-neechan, were you able to hear any of that? Well, they want to go."

…

"Okay, so you'll pick us all up after school?"

…

"Okay, see you at home!" Both sides had apparently, by this time, hung up, and Conan relaxed back into his chair.

Nobody could see the look of impending doom written all over his face. _These next few days are going to be a nightmare…_

~CHAPTER END~

AN://

Haha, I had to arrange something.

SHRUNKEN HAKUBA MEETS THE SHONEN-TANTEI-DAN. WHAT COULD POSSIBLY GO WRONG? Well, add one to be doomed to get dragged along on all the cases from pointless …things to murder cases.  
-waits- CHAP 700 HURRY UP! ...by the time it's translated and online, I'll be back from volleyball camp...not sure whether to cry because it'll take that long or be happy cause I have something to look forward to. DX Oh, and did anyone else gawk at the sheer amount of expression Ai showed in 699? SHE ACTUALLY WAS SURPRISED AND SHOWED IT!

Mel72000—Thank you! And I hope it does. I'm still not quite sure exactly what the ending will be though. X3 And yes, you did mention you were French, but it's alright. :3

Marie Ravenclaw—Muahahaha…will Hakuba ever find out? What will the Shonen-tanteidan torture him with? Will I ever give Watson some bird food? Find out…on the next chapter of POST SUSPICION!! Wow, that sounds cheesy. Hakuba is the awsomesauce.

xxBakaAkki—XD I'm not much good with writing like this. Cliffs are not my forte. And pardon the lack of detail…normally, I end up…blabbering on and on about random things that have zero importance whatsoever and it gets pretty wordy. And, to add to that, I have a problem with over-correcting myself. Plus, this isn't exactly a setting built from my own head, so I don't know it quite as well…the list goes on and on. But I tried to make it more detailed with this chapter! I think…I might have forgotten about it about halfway through, but…I tried! DX

Pretztailfan95—Yes, he is much fun indeed. He gets annoyed at the littlest things (or not so little things, considering what the things are) but is far too polite to actually…react. XD And Kaiba is indeed cruel. They are similar…except that Hakuba isn't as…driven? –shrug- Hey, if that's the case, who's Yugi?

A Midsummer Night's Dream—Glad you like it?

Disclaimer: I have no right to be putting Hakuba in these situations. Kaitou KID has more right than me, and he doesn't even exist.


	7. CleanupClean up everybody do your share!

~CHAPTER START~

Ran put down the phone after the call. Sonoko was by her side, at the moment, and otousan was out on some random case, leaving the two girls free to do what they needed for the day.

_Earlier_

…"Ran, you know he's gotta be somewhere around here, Hattori-kun informed you fo that much when he first came." Both girls sank deep in thought. Hattori Heiji had made a good point as he'd made his entrance, noisily searching for the missing—for the moment—Kudo Shinichi, although the kokosei meitantei appeared out of nowhere in only a few hours. But that really only supported the fact that Shinichi was, in fact, nearby, if he'd been able to come at such short notice in that amount of time.

_And Conan-kun disappeared whenever he reappeared_, Ran reminded herself.

"Sonoko, I'm sure he's here…but…"

"AW COME ON Ran, you've been moping over his sudden disappearance ever since that date of yours at Tropical Land. If he doesn't come to you then you better go catch him instead!" She had to hand it to Sonoko to know when she needed good, friendly encouragement. "Give him a call. You _do_ have your husband's number, right?"

Ran went deep red at this. "Of COURSE I have his number! But he's not my husband! I've told you that a million times!" And it was hardly an exaggeration. But she obliged anyhow, and soon found herself on the phone with her childhood friend.

_Back to the present…_

She'd really only wanted to ease her constant suspicions…suspicions that, on multiple occasions, had been clearly proven false in front of her eyes! She'd watched Conan innocently playing as she talked with Shinichi on the phone, not to mention that she'd seen the two of them AT THE SAME TIME, with no mistake. But something always bugged her—these occasions were always perfectly timed, _always_ at that very moment during which she'd been paying the most attention to Conan's actions. And it was undeniable proof put right in front of her face, as if some greater being felt like teasing her in particular with the numerous similarities between her (*coughinsertboyherecough*) friend and her adoptive little brother –slash- said friend's distant relative –slash- said friend's neighbor's probably somewhat more distant relative.

Confusing. And all too coincidental for her comfort.

She had to make sure. This time, she'd watch Conan and Shinichi extremely carefully. Hattori Heiji, once he'd suddenly warmed up to Conan (after two cases of staring at the bright child and even suggesting that he was somehow Kudo shrunken) had disguised as Shinichi before, though not very successfully. She'd have to keep an eye on him. Conan, on the other hand, would be harder; if he really was just a little kid (and her eyes kept telling her he was), then she couldn't just go around pulling his cheek and testing for a disguise.

Back to reality. Sonoko was saying something, but she was just automatically filtering things out. Ran turned the filter off and tried to pay attention again. "…so LUCKY you get to see your husband again…!" And the filter went back on, after all, Sonoko was only exclaiming her excitement of the upcoming date. Ran was only mildly curious why this specific outing was so…abnormal.

And so she started her call to Conan-kun to tell him he could bring his friends. Which she hadn't thought of, but she just couldn't refuse the cheerful group of eager shonen-tantei.

…

They got back to Agasa's house around 5:10, after convincing the kids to not follow them and dropping each on off at their own homes. Conan quickly phoned Ran to tell her that he'd eat dinner at Agasa-hakase's.

Ai didn't wait. The moment they were in the house and somewhere private, she cornered Conan (and he cornered her at the same time) to ask.

"What did you mean by 'Shinichi-niichan will be there'? Kudo-kun, there's a slight kink in these plans." She was using her normal cold, sarcastic humor. Ugh.

"The first phone call, Ran asked me on another date. She was practically _threatening_ me if I didn't come. And she knew I was in Japan."

Haibara folded her arms. "And you're going to accomplish this how?"

"Could you please pretty please give me an antidote for the day? Do you have anything that'll last at least 12 hours for sure?" Conan pleaded. He _really_ hoped she'd agree.

"And what reason do you have? It's a simple date. You could've refused and avoided this whole situation."

Conan took off his glasses and rubbed his temples for a little. "She sounded like she knew."

He heard her sigh. "She's always known at least a little. Or had an idea. What makes now any different?"

He shrugged and paced a little. "Sonoko probably got her to ask me on the date, at least. Ran probably wants to make sure, for the tenth time, that I'm just Conan and Shinichi is Shinichi. Can't we just do what we did that time when I first tested it? You dress up as me and I just take the antidote for the time being?"

"Kudo-kun, you know the more you use the antidote, the shorter it lasts each time."

"Yeah, I know. But I gotta do it, at least for Ran's peace of mind. I can't let her keep worrying about me being Conan like this. Even if peace of mind is only temporary." His voice was quiet, not quite a whisper.

Ai paused, thinking for a moment, eyes closed. "Fine. For Ran then."

Conan blinked. "Really?"

"Kudo-kun, can you really see me joking right now?"

"Uhm…that joke you pulled when you first introduced yourself was pretty cruel. And uncalled for."

He could practically see her smirking. But not openly—the girl never showed emotions. He was always surprised if anything ever showed on her face. Haibara Ai was a statue.

Conan sighed. "Thanks, Haibara-san."

"Tomorrow's the last day of school—I'll call you so we can plan a little and set up whatever safety measures just in case the antidote doesn't work as expected." She left in the direction of the kitchen. Men had an inability to feed themselves. Conan rejoined Hakuba and Agasa-hakase at the TV.

…

Kaito decided he'd drop by the Police Department (aka NAKAMORI'S HEADQUARTERS) and ask whether anyone had seen Hakuba. Getting there was easy enough; it wasn't the first time he'd tagged along when Aoko went to see her dad "at work." Not that he was actually doing anything when a KID heist wasn't underway.

It was a short walk after school, though he and Aoko stopped by a café for a snack.

"Afternoon, Nakamori-keibu!" he cheerfully called out to the inspector as he walked in behind his childhood friend.

"How was your day, tousan?"

"Hello, Kaito-kun, Aoko-chan." The inspector didn't seem worried at all. After all, there hadn't been a KID heist note for a while. He mentally noted that he should find another jewel to check soon. If he didn't, everyone (including himself) would probably go crazy wondering why there hadn't been a heist for so long. And Kuroba Kaito was not one to disappoint.

"Hey, have you seen Hakuba-san lately?" he inquired curiously. Lying and faking expression came as second nature to the disguise artist.

Nakamori looked up at the question, then looked back and paused. "No, actually, I haven't. Usually he'd be all over the place trying to convince us we should be investigating KID even when there isn't a heist. He's been awfully quiet since Monday." Well, that was expected. "But it's odd," continued Nakamori. "I haven't seen nor heard from him at all, and he wasn't sick on Sunday either."

"Well, I dropped by his house earlier and he wasn't there then either. And I had a good prank planned too!" He feigned frustration. Okay, maybe the frustration wasn't all that fake. "He wasn't at school today, so I thought he was sick and I went over to see if I could try and cheer him up! But the annoying bird was the only living thing there…" Right. He rubbed at a still-red nip on his finger. His punishment for poking unprotected apendages into a bird cage. The hawk was probably starved by now and thought his finger was food. Either that, or it remembered him from Kaitou KID heists. Neither was appealing.

"Hm, even if this is highly unusual for Hakuba-kun, there's no need to worry, not unless he doesn't show up anywhere for another day or so. It's impossible to even file a missing persons report unless the person has been gone for at least 24 hours." Nakamori-keibu was unusually calm today. Or maybe it was simply the lack of a KID heist that had muffled the normal outbursts of words preferably left out of text. All the more reason to have a heist soon. Apparently people started going insane when faced with abnormal behaviors.

Okay, screw it all. Kaitou KID needed a heist, bad. Hakuba's little police report could wait at least a little. "Okay, Nakamori-keibu, Aoko, see you later." He hardly waited for Aoko to react to him leaving out any sort of suffix. The mop was not something he wanted right now.

The walk home was short enough, thank goodness, and helped calm his nerves. This heistless…ness was making him…restless. (Hey, that rhymed! …I really need to do SOMETHING.) And his friend's troubles weren't helping at all. Ugh.

…

Conan, by now, had left, and Ai was down in the lab…doing whatever it was she did down there. Probably working on an antidote.

Leaving Hakuba to think. About everything that was going on. Mostly about Edogawa-kun. He put together everything he knew about the boy in his head:

-Edogawa Conan is a pseudonym, similar to his Hirai Akechi. There's no way someone with the family name Edogawa (just like writer Edogawa Rampo—also unlikely) would name their child after the creator of Sherlock Holmes. Or at least the chances were very, very slim.

-He knew most of the information currently available about this Organization that they were up against. He was not surprised at all that Hakuba was a decade younger than he should have been. He also knew exactly what measures needed to be taken for disguises.

-He was somehow related to Kudo Shinichi, the famous kokosei tantei. Agasa-hakase, Kudo Shinichi's neighbor, did not hesitate at all to take Conan to Shinichi's house and trusted him enough to leave without explaination.

-He was quite mature for a seven-year-old, and had deductive skills equal to or greater than Hakuba and many detectives much older.

-It was in fact possible for a person to shrink.

From this, the most he could deduce was that Conan may, in fact, be another victim of the apotoxin, possibly even Kudo Shinichi himself, but…he had his doubts. More information was necessary. Granted, he could look at Conan whenever he was in the middle of a case, or in a serious mood, and he couldn't see any bit of a seven-year-old in his face, but, as was his nature, he needed evidence. Conclusive, hard evidence.

Tomorrow, he decided, he would spend gathering information on the boy wonder while he was at school. He could talk to Agasa-hakase, even if the professor wouldn't reveal the truth, not directly, that is, he could probably worm some information out. Hm…he should probably stop by the Mouri Detective Agency too—apparently Conan was very close to Mouri Ran, and was currently living with her and her father.

He'd hopefully just look like a curious little kid that was visiting his friends for the summer.

…

"Tadaima, Ran-neechan, Ojisan!" announced Conan as he walked in, putting his bag down and taking out the first of his homework.

"How was school, Conan-kun?" asked Ran, hesitantly. Her suspicions still stood, but as she struggled to keep from revealing anything, she found it hard to ask anything…personal. But she still felt silly, seeing as said suspicions had only just been aroused once more by Sonoko's prodding and "deductions."

Conan cheerfully answered, "It was fun, Ran-neechan! We helped the Kobayashi-sensei plain the party for tomorrow!" Right. The elementary school kids had parties on the last day of school. But Conan had sounded almost _too_ cheeful. She shook the thought out of her head. She was overthinking it—of course he was cheeful, he was just a little kid. Right?

The "little boy" had his pencil out, breezing through some math problems. It was another example of Conan's…unchildlike behavior. He was clearly a brilliant kid, he got great grades. The homework was usually done in about five minutes, leaving Conan to do whatever all day long. Whenever she was watching, he worked slowly, like he had to think, but she knew that if she turned her back or failed to pay attention for a few minutes, it would be done quickly and efficiently, just to get it out of the way.

Then again, it was his last homework assignment of the year. Of course the teachers wouldn't give him a lot on the last day. Right?

She leaned on the counter and rubbed her head in confusion.

"Are you alright, Ran-neechan?" asked Conan, concerned, in that adorable innocent voice of his. It was one of…numerous things that seemed to always push her thoughts relating Conan to Shinichi far back in her head and see only her adorable adoptive little brother.

"Oh…yeah, I'm fine, Conan-kun." She might as well just enjoy the idea of simply having a little brother…

…

_I will come against the greatest black tide_

_And return the Forest Song by home_

_Kaitou KID_

~CHAPTER END~

AN://

XD Thought I'd leave you with a little KID note! A heist makes everyone's day better! And geez the things are hard to come up with…how the heck does Aoyama do it? And forget about coming up with murders! If the guy wanted to go homocidal, he'd probably need his own fictional detective in order to get caught.

Well, I'm gone for the next four days or so, so here I leave you. XD I'll be waiting for updates on plenty of fanfics when I get back! And chap 700! Which will hopefully be up by the time I'm home for the day again. And then I'm off once more on a road trip, so you won't be seeing much of me.

A Midsummer Night's Dream—Eh…-chuckles to self- Nothing! …_right…_

Pretztailfan95—Hm…I'll have to bring Heiji in sometime, so…that should be interesting. HAKUBA VS. HEIJI IS ALWAYS FUN. And I guess Conan is Yugi when you think about it. They can both instantly gain three feet vertically! XD But Conan vs. Hakuba doesn't have the same feel as Yugi vs. Kaiba. –shrug- Who knows?

AngelRoy—Hakuba: D8!!! Well, we'll see! I'm not spilling anything! I think I'm not spilling anything…And I guess Kaito is annoying as hell to Hakuba. Personally, I don't think anyone's quite…innocent enough to be Yugi. –shrug- But then again I'm not Yugioh expert.

xxBakaAkki—No, no! Criticism is good! It makes the world go around! I need more of it! Keep going, PLEASE! Make sure I'm aware that I'm as horrible as I am or else my ego will burst like Shinichi in epi 1!! Not a pretty picture!

_goodness there were a lot of reviews for this chapter…_

Kayla Edogawa—My Hakuba doesn't do anything! He's practically…just…watching everything that's going on. He NEVER talks! But, lol, glad you like it.

Helen the 2nd—He could…

Mel72000—You're welcome! Glad I could…goodify your week? Or help to do so? XD

Marie Ravenclaw--*cough* I never said anything of the like! –shiftyeyes- Ehehe… (Kaito: Ahem…) WELL ANYHOW… Watson's probably starved already. Poor bird. Probably stuck in the cage still too.

THAT WAS A LOT OF REVIEWS.

_If I owned DC/MK, I would have been married to the voice actor for the main character of my anime. That voice actor is a girl. So am I. I'm pretty sure she's also easily twice to three times my age and I'm also not lesbian. I think. No offense intended. Oh, and I'd also have divorced her by now too, which is impossible seeing as I was never married in the first place. Common sense? Fanfic? Emphasis on FAN? Right._


	8. Now THAT can't be good

Hakuba spent Wednesday looking over the most recent heist note. He'd managed to snatch a copy from the newspaper. Why and how it got leaked to the media was a mystery to him (and own he wouldn't enjoy solving at that.) But, for once, the note was simple enough.

The Forest Song emerald was going on display starting tonight, ending on Saturday, so KID had that time to go through with the heist. _Which I can't believe Kuroba is still doing, what with me in my current state and all_.

He looked over the note. Most of it was fairly straightforward—_Black Tide_ referred to the Kuroshio current in the Pacific nearest Japan. It flowed from the south to the northeast, so he would be coming in opposite from that direction. He marked a few possible locations on the map, circling tall buildings with a highlighter.

_I will come against the greatest black tide_…

Was it just him, or did it mean more? He shook his head. Only a few would notice any reference to the people who'd attacked him—supposedly the Black Organization that Conan talked about and also the snipers hiding in the darkness surrounding Kaitou KID.

But still.

He pushed all the different possible scenarios out his head long enough to focus on the next line.

_And return the Forest Song by home_.

His eyes drifted back to the map. This heist note was so simple it was almost _boring_ by KID's standards. Usually there was a hidden reference here, a false meaning there—you had to read between the lines. Here it was just…easy.

Forest…Song…home. Well, it probably referred to the "home" of the Forest Song—so…something related to trees? Forest…woods…wilderness…no, that couldn't be it, there was nothing nearby of the sort. So back to the start. Forest…rainforest…jungle… He looked at the map again. _Tropical Land_.

Oh, he would _definitely_ be going with Conan to Tropical Land tomorrow. It was almost too good a chance to pass up, even though if he were at his normal age, he could have just gone directly to the heist. But it would just have to do to follow his…not quite friend, but more "ally" or "aquaintance" while said child was being brought along on his guardian's date. Put that way, he sounded like a freeloader of a freeloader. Well…it was better than nothing.

Putting down the note and pens for a bit, he stood up and stretched, glancing at his watch, still in his pocket. Most of the day had passed…good, he'd killed some time in a decently productive manner. The others would be back from school soon.

It was silent. Not quite uncomfortable, as his own home had been fairly similar. But, in the emptiness, his mind started to wander. He took out the pill, a "cure" or the closest there was to one. Fingering the capsule of who-knows-what, he started considering using taking it, at least just to make an excuse for everyone to not try to visit over the summer. Well, he already had plenty of trips to England, so it was easy enough to make a plausible story. No problems there.

He started to get up, selecting some of his clothes bought for his 18-year-old body. Pill still in hand, he took everything to the nearest bathroom—not that there was anyone else in the house at the moment, but it simply seemed more appropriate.

He hesitated a moment, before swallowing the pill.

…

Conan had come much to the same conclusion, holding the note under his desk and secretly working out the riddle long before class was over. He spent the rest of class thinking.

By now the initial shock of finding Hakuba at his (okay, Mouri's) front door and shrunken. He'd thought the Organization had stopped using APTX as a means of assasination, but apparently it was not so.

Hakuba hadn't even done anything, but the Organization still "killed" him. If things continued, it could get dangerous for numerous people around him.

He couldn't let that happen.

After school, he headed straight to Agasa-hakase's, dialling a number on the way.

"_Kudo! What is it? 'm ina bit o' a situation 'ere! Can't really talk right now!"_

Conan just ignored the whispering/hissing coming from the speaker. "Hey, Hattori, it's nice talking to you too. You'll never believe what happened…"

…

Heiji snickered, just barely able to contain all-out falling on the ground from laughter. "So that Hakuba brat got shrunk too! Priceless!"

He could practically see Kudo's annoyed glare across the phone line. Wiping a tear from the corner of his eye, he gagged into the phone, "Sorry, Kudo, can't help m'self. Ya know 'ow much 'e bugs me!" He was still choking down chuckles. Really, why in the world would the Black Organization go after that _aho_? Hakuba Saguru only went after KID nowadays—how could that be a threat? Unless, somehow, KID was part of the organization, but Kudo trusted the thief, so so did he.

"_Hattori, you do realize that this means they've probably targeted you as well? You have known associations with Kudo Shinichi, or at least you appear to, and apparently even someone as distant as Hakuba was a threat. Be careful—_"

"Yeah, yeah, 'n all that stuff. But I don' think 'ey're comin' after me. Why would they go t' Hakuba first?"

"_I don't know, but just be on your guard. I'm sure They're making some moves even now_."

"Yeah, 'kay."

"_Hattori?_" What was it Kudo could possible have to say _now_??

He replied, slightly annoyed, "Yah?"

"…_I've…I was sort of pulled into a date with Ran tomorrow—and the thing is, she has to 'babysit' Conan at the same time. I've got plans to make sure both Shinichi and Conan are there…but…_" Hattori frowned. Things always ended up a mess when Kudo tried things like this.

"_I'm thinking I should just tell her then._"

He was about to agree, to encourage his friend when Kudo's voice came again. "_Maybe if people knew who I was, I could draw them out somehow._"

_No-no-no-no-NO!_ Heiji wanted to scream at Conan. That wouldn't work! If Kaitou KID really was against these guys like Kudo had said he was, then he was sure that this was the strategy the thief himself was using, at every heist, in every show of magic he shoved in their face. And that had gotten him nowhere, so how could Kudo do any better? But words failed him, and cellphones don't send wordless expressions.

The phone beeped. The shrunken detective had hung up. Heiji slammed his phone shut in frustration, then swiveled his chair around. "Kazuha!" he hollered out his door. "'ave we got any plans fer tomorrow?"

"No!" Her reply was also shouted. "You AHOU! Why don't ya just come ov'r 'ere and talk! I c'n barely hear ya!"

He didn't bother to get up, instead continuing to shout. " 'ow about we go to Tokyo fer th' night ta visit Neechan 'n' Ku—Conan-kun?!"

Apparently Kazuha hadn't felt like shouting, instead standing in his doorway looking quite irritated. He chuckled nervously.

…

The first thing Hakuba could remember as he regained conciousness was the pain. Always the pain. It had been much the same pain as when he'd first shrunk—like fire burning through his entire body and melting everything in its path. And his heart—of course the stress of growing and shrinking 10 years in, he checked his watch, half an hour would be near fatal.

But he was relieved, too. If it hadn't been for the fact that he was no longer in his own home and the pile of clothes to fit a primary schooler, it would all just seem like a bad dream.

He straightened his tie, cleaned himself up a bit, then stepped from the Kudo house, walking away as if merely on a stroll.

He checked his pocket watch again. It was just around the time that Ekoda High got out, so he headed in that direction first.

By the time he arrived, there were already students mulling around on their way home. He quickly picked out Kaito, Aoko, Keiko, and a few of their fellow classmates clustered together. Akako was nowhere to be seen, but she'd probably just wandered home alone.

He waited by the road and joined them as they passed, the the utter shock of Kaito, hidden behind a practiced poker face.

"Yo, Hakuba, where've you been the past week!" he cheerfully greeted. Translation: Hakuba, how the HELL did you get back to normal size?!

Hakuba faked a chuckle. "As if you haven't been stalking me the entire time?" Translation: And you haven't been paying attention to what I was doing? How very unlike you, Kuroba-kun. Note the sarcasm.

"I just came to tell everyone I'll be leaving for England and will in all likeliness will not be coming back for the next school year. My plane leaves tonight so I was simply dropping by to say goodbye." Hm, did that sound a little too rushed and rehearsed? Not exactly a lie, but it was still uncomfortable.

"Well, it's good that you're here, even for a bit." Aoko smiled innocently, completely unaware of the conversation beneath the conversation. Well, she had no need to know. She would be safer that way. Everyone would be.

It still hurt to tell her a lie.

There was a short awkward silence. By now, they were near Aoko's house and Keiko had already left the group as her home was in a different direction. Aoko rushed a quick goodbye to Hakuba and 'see you later!' to Kaito, leaving the two of them alone on the sidewalk.

The high school detective checked his watch. "How about talking over dinner?"

The magician nodded cheerfully as he popped roses and doves in and out of view, still acting like it was just an normal invitation. Hakuba decided, to his own irritation, to play along.

…

It had taken almost all his years of practicing his Poker Face when Hakuba he'd witnessed his part-time rival part-time friend _shrinking_. Now, only a few days later, he'd somehow _grown_ ten years all over again. It surprised him so much, his poker face almost crumbled.

Luckily, he had a right to be surprised in the situation any outsiders would have seen.

He followed Hakuba into one of many restaurants, instinctively still hiding everything he knew although there was nobody within earshot but Hakuba himself.

Hakuba checked his watch again.

"I only have until around two pm tomorrow, before…" The detective's voice faded out. Kaito gulped (figuratively speaking—he didn't _actually_ gulp) as he realized what was being implied.

He blinked innocently. "…Before your plane flight?" He couldn't reveal his secret identity with such solid proof now. Not yet, at least.

"_Dammit_, Kaito, you and I both know that I'm in a bit of a _situation_!" Hakuba said slowly, voice filled with cold frustration. And at the thief-disguised-as-average-highschooler's continued silence, the Brit seemed to finally have resigned, releasing the glass of water he'd been frantically gripping throughout their 'conversation.' "Could you _at least_ tell the Kaitou KID I'm looking for him at the moment? I'd like a little _chat_ with him. I'm sure he wouldn't mind a little _talk_ with one of his 'critics.' It's just a little important." The sarcasm was overwhelming. It made Kaito smile under his many masks.

"Sure! I'll see if I can do that." He peeked at his watch, acting as if he had somewhere to go. "Well, I must be off. I'll…well, I suppose we won't be seeing eachother anytime soon, will we? Off to England and all, right?" Kaito scooted out of his chair, got up, pushed it back in, and left Hakuba with his mouth hanging. He almost felt sorry for the guy.

…

Homework finished and Ran out shopping with Sonoko, Conan was left with Kogoro. The detective was in a slumber—mind you, it wasn't nearly of the deductive genius variety. He was merely drunk, as always.

"I'm going out!" Conan yelled to his friend's dad, even though he couldn't hear him. Ran would probably scold Ojisan later for not paying attention to Conan while she was gone.

It was a short walk to his and Agasa-hakase's houses. Finding the Kudo house empty, he continued on next door.

The Brit wasn't here either. "Oi, Haibara-san, have you seen Hakuba anywhere?" At her indifferent shaking of her head, he ran a hand through his hair. "He's not at my house either, where could he be?" Conan almost shouted, frustrated.

Ai shrugged. "Probably out with that temporary antidote I gave him, hopefully not wasting his twenty-four hours on something silly like a random homocide case that just happens to pop up within a hundred meters?"

"Hey, it's not my fault! I'm a detective!"

"And a detective with an inability to _not_ get caught up in a case whenever he walks out the door."

Conan, at this point, gave up, flopping onto the familiar couch.

"What are your thoughts on this situation? The Black Organization and all. Something about Hakuba's appearance makes you uncomfortable." His question was somewhat sudden, after the light.

Ai shifted in her seat, putting down the magazine she'd been perusing and exhaled. "The poison. It's the poison. Either it's not working properly, and way too many people are…receiving this," she gestured at herself and Conan, "particular side effect…or…" She drifted off, the second, more likely option obviously horrid enough to silence her talk.

Conan's expression darkened as he realized what she was saying. "Or they've been using it as a means of assasination all along." His eyes fell to the ground as he leaned forward into his hands. "Of _course_ they wouldn't stop using it, there's no reason _not to_. And it's a flawless murder weapon when it works." His logic was leading him to some scary conclusions. "And no information would ever even reach us, especially if it's made to look like a heart attack or other natural death."

…

"Well, _tantei-san_, a little birdie told me you wanted a talk." The words stopped Hakuba in his tracks as the detective trudged solemnly down the sidewalk, wondering how he should spend the next half day in his normal body. He didn't even turn to look at the white-clad magician, perched atop a street lamp.

"Did you really need to be so secretive that you don't even tell the secret to someone who already knows it?" He shook his head in resign. There really was no common sense to KID.

The phantom thief grinned maniacally; Hakuba couldn't see it, but he could practically feel the cheshire cat breathing down his neck. "I haven't a clue what you're speaking of," replied KID simply. "This is the first time I've seen you since you misplaced a few feet." Hakuba _hated_ it when Kuroba tried running circles around him, _trying_ to prove the detective wrong at every point. And what he hated more was his inability to back up his own accusations. So 'KID' contiued skipping giddy circles.

He sighed. "Okay, fine, have it your way. I'll simply ignore everything I said this afternoon to you, and start over at the beginning again." He now turned to face the thief, gesturing with his arms all the way.

"I'll only be like this until around two p.m. tomorrow, before I shrink again." They were lucky that the street was empty. Kaitou KID was difficult _not_ to notice, and the subject matter was between the two of them: confidential. (except, Hakuba reminded himself, Conan, Ai, and the Profesor)

KID must have noticed him glancing around the street as he talked; his next words seeped with superior foresight. "I checked the buildings all around. No spies, cameras or whatnot to interrupt our little conversation. You didn't think I'd just spot you and flutter down to talk, did you? Tsk tsk, Tantei-san, you're losing your touch." He waggled a finger mockingly.

Hakuba looked up reproachfully at the thief, who, in response, enveloped himself in a cloud of smoke to appear at his eye level, grinning all the while. "Yeeees?" He leaned forward in an intrusive manner.

The detective instinctively leaned away before slapping his face for getting distracted. He finally managed to force himself to stay on subject. Hopefully KID would oblige. "Do you have any leads on the people who did this," he gestured, then continued, "to me? Cause your 'tantei-kun' definitely had nothing."

The phantom thief sighed sadly and spread his empty hands wide. "Unfortunately, I haven't much in the way of information either. That's generally your department. It's the whole point of the decent KID chase really, to try and get their attention. But then again, I should have known tantei-kun didn't have anything from the way he jumped whenever the words 'men' and 'black' were used in the same sentence." He looked back , disappointed, at Hakuba. "I was hoping if I tossed two and two together I'd get four."

"Well, you must have _some_ sort of lead—if your heists are any hint."

The magician looked pensive for a moment, then answered, "Yes. Yes I do, in fact. But it's only a name and a motive in my direction."

"Please do tell." The Brit rolled his eyes. At this point, even a shoe size might help.

"His codename is Snake, he's the guy in charge of…well, killing me. And the one who murdered my…predecessor," he started angrily before the poker face slipped down once more. Was that sorrow and longing Hakuba detected? "And they're after a certain jewel—Pandora, said to cry tears of immortality when a certain comet passes Earth every ten thousand years." He scoffed incredulously. Apparently KID hardly believed it any more than he did. Sure, a drug that killed ten years (or at least made it feel like that much DIED) but a stone that gave immortal life? It was a stretch.

"Are you sure they're the same people? Ours seemed like stealthy, ruthless murderers who just happened to make a poison that shrank people from what I could gain from my end. Yours just…doesn't. It'd illogical, imprecise. Like they have not a clue what they're doing."

KID thought hard for a moment. "I can't see either existing in the presence of another, unless each was so deeply undercover that they'd evade eachother's notice." He frowned and continued, "Plus, the uniform seems to match—black hats and trenchcoats from what I could tell. And lastly," he gestured showily with his hand, "mistake or not, losing years is in the direction of immortality. It wouldn't be strange to think that they were researching both an untraceable poison as a device of murder at the same time as an elixir of life. Perhaps they stumbled upon the poison while looking for the elixir?" He shrugged and leaned against the lamp he'd stood upon earlier. "It makes sense, logically, as you critics love to put it."

But before Hakuba could say any more, KID spotted something in the distance and tipped his hat farewell. "Sayonara, tantei-san. I will see you," he bowed with a flourish, "at the heist." Smoke billowed from nowhere in particular, and KID vanished into thin air, still grinning like an idiot.

Hakuba looked around and sighed. "The _baro_. Trying to convince everyone he thinks it's just a game. He knows it isn't."

…

He had one job, and one job only. He wasn't even important enough to name to the superiors. But it was a job, he got money for it. Goodness knew he needed it.

He sat monitoring the surveillance cameras on the streets. He was supposed to look at the videos, watch people who'd never know that there was a stalker they would never see nor expect. He was supposed to memorize faces, people, actions, and in which videos they occurred in.

And, take it as chance, he'd been one of a few people stuck in a van watching a troublesome highschooler in pain as he died, before the video had suddenly halted.

Today, he was stuck in a similar situation, but he had about half a dozen average street-quality security cameras to monitor. It was probably going to kill his eyes one of these days.

But, take it as chance, he'd seen someone he remembered. Someone he remembered quite clearly.

Someone, who, the last time he'd seen, had been writhing in pain as he died.

Hakuba Saguru, highschool detective, supposedly dead and missing, had simply walked into one of his cameras.

Take it as chance.

~CHAPTER END~

AN://

Hello again! It's been a while, I've been on vacation and back, and now school is starting. Updates will be coming more slowly, but it'll keep going.

So concludes Wednesday, and nothing unusual. Not in Conan's world at least.

…Can you tell I'm submitting these pretty much the moment I finish them? I thought I'd be writing at least a chapter ahead for this one, but I couldn't wait. ^^;; Oh, and does anyone know why on 8/21 the hits jumped from like 12 to 35? I can't figure it out, but I think I got like three reviews that day too.

REVIEW REPLY TIME!!!!

A Bibliophile—Hm…I think of lot of that was just answered in this chapter! XD Well, it's not them acting rashly so much as not wanting to draw attention, really. Okay, so I'll admit there were a TON of errors in the beginning of the story, but at that point I was mostly trying to get to 'Hakuba is shrunken and is clueless about Conan' and…well, you can see how that came along from there. It's embarassing, really, to realize all the mistakes. XD I'm just hoping people don't pay TOO much attention to those chapter…tough luck for me cause that's (hopefully) the first thing they read. And about discreetly calling…well, I think Hakuba feels too honest and 'polite' to pull something like that. Or I'm probably just making excuses. ^^;; Well, everything's better in person, right? Right?

therandomthinker—Hm, I suppose he will find out soon, unless he suddenly gets chucked off track. MUAHAHAHA..haha..ha…ha. Thanks!

bobbyneko—Thank you for encouragement!

helen the 2nd—Well, he sorta is friends with Kaito, and the accusations tend to be subtle suggestions. Plus, he doesn't actually know about Kudo Shinichi and exact details, so he doesn't have the KUDO DISAPPEARED THE SAME TIME YOU APPEARED argument and all that. It's a lot less evidence than a strand of hair pointing at a fifteen to seventeen-year old of 174 cm, 58 kg, 20-20 vision, and Japanese of blood type B, who is also a magician. And a magician who fits all those criteria just _happens_ to be in his class. It kinda gives quite a bit of proof that just isn't quite solid enough.

And yes, you should never, ever stick your finger in a bird's cage. XD

Tricksters Imagination--*u* I is innocent!

xxBakaAkki—YES I shall try to remember that. And yes that one was rushed because I had like, an hour before we left for a three-week long road trip and I wanted to get the chapter up before that. And I thought I had a lot less to write. XD And, believe it or not, yeah, that's one of my problems. And I will find SOMEPLACE to use the phrase 'epic ficing'…somewhere.

Marie Ravenclaw—Shinichi is so very much fun to torture. As much as I love him (and I WANTS HIM) it's just so FUN to watch him (and people trying to figure him out) run around in endless circles of DOOOM.

Pretztailfan95—Hm…Heiji would just gtf away from me, aho! 'n mind your own business! XP at Hakuba and Hakuba would gladly mind his own business just to prove Heiji wrong. Wait, does this even make sense? XD Well, Yugi may just be Conan, but it gets quite chaotic when you have only a few Yugi-Oh characters…and like a dozen DC/MK characters. Who each fit eachother in different ways. –headache- And Aiko means love child. 8D YAY FOR GOOGLE even though I should have figured it out as a DC fan…Aoko, Akako, Ai…and actually having already known what they meant…

Mangaluva—Thanks, but stop complimenting me! You should be busy uploading the next WPBIO chapter a couple hours early! I'd much prefer that! –puppyeyes- XD

Mel7200—What're ya thanking me for?! You're the one I should be thanking for complimenting it…whut? I confuzzle myself. Too often. I think I've done it like three times in this one chapter…

Is that a full page of just review replies? o.0 I should update more often. Or at least not write such long-winded reviews.

Well, there's a bit of a longer chap for ya. Enjoy!

Disclaimer: Obviously, if I owned DC/MK, I'd be some sort of literary/deductive/criminal/magic genius of some sort, which I'm obviously not. Can't you tell by the repetitive redundancy in this one disclaimer? And the plot that looks like a slice of swiss cheese?


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